Profiting Energy Companies: The Public is not to be Milked

By Melanie van der Poll

British Gas and EDF are announcing their latest profits – the first ever since the bill hikes that millions have experienced during summer.

When the time came to put up bills, larger energy companies fell like dominoes – and the people that are suffering are the ones living in the country who are expecting a winter where they are going to struggle to pay for the heat in their homes.

The average bills top £1,300 per annum and 1 in four officially admitted to fuel poverty. The announcements are enough to raise hairs around the country. On top of it all, there is also an issue where civilians are blinded by the real reason for these bill hikes.

In the last decade, gas prices increased - and they have increased by 90 percent since 2000. While the price for gas has increased, the same can be said about the energy firms’ profits, which was over a-third higher compared to 2008. Last year this profit stood at £8.6 million. The increasing price for gas has given energy firms the opportunity to pass the inflated prices on to customers and this gives the firms the chance to milk consumers and score the difference. Why else are shareholders grinning?

The rising prices for gas have been absent from media reports claiming to publicize the truth about the energy bills. In order to make sure that they will not be blamed, commentators leapt on their green policies making everybody believe that it was the reason for the bill hikes. The fact is that green energy makes up a fraction for the bills – 6 percent on the average dual energy bill.

This is the time that the government has to get serious on energy companies. The public cannot be milked anymore, something has got to happen. Citizens are angry as they have been paying ridiculous amounts of money to companies; some of the companies have previously been investigated for unfairly charging for energy.

However, things don’t have to be this way. There is so much potential within the UK, energy can be generated by sun, wind and the waves. Right now, these sources only contribute to about eight percent of the whole electricity supply; why not allow it to contribute more? With a large investment in energy, the UK could be a country seen as a world-leader instead of a follower. It could mean new employment opportunities, warmer housing, and if citizens can cut the energy wastage, it could mean long-term good deals.

The way it works is not fair; while the big energy companies are coining the billions, they keep us hooked on dangerous nuclear power and overpriced fossil fuels – citizens have been through enough to know that this is not going to work. This is the reason that Friends of the Earth are taking to the streets outside the headquarters of EDF London.

The petition has also been signed by thousands of people who have had enough. This petition is asking for renovation of the energy system and wants it to begin with an actual public enquiry into the power of the energy companies and requires the government to act against the support being cut off from British energy providers. When this is achieved, people will be using gas in their homes.